A SLOVAK businessman at the heart of a dramatic international money laundering trial was yesterday sentenced to four years in prison in Hong Kong after being undone by an undercover journalist.

    Juraj Jariabka stood the trial in the District Court that lasted almost four months.

    The conviction came about as a direct result of an undercover investigation by Italian journalist and key prosecution witness, Antonio Papaleo.

    A former reporter for Italian and Slovak national television, Papaleo posed as a drug addict and alcoholic in a months-long operation to infiltrate and expose the financial crimes of Jariabka.

    In May last year, the Slovak hired the undercover Papaleo to come to Hong Kong to establish two front companies and set up a bank account, which the prosecution had argued were to receive the proceeds of crime.

    Jariabka was arrested in the IFC mall a month later by Hong Kong police.

    He had denied one count of incitement to deal with property known or believed to represent the proceeds of an indictable offense, but Dufton found the prosecution had proven his guilt beyond reasonable doubt and sentenced him in the first verdict of its kind. (SD-Agencies)